This disclosure relates, generally, to the insertion of contacts into apertured circuit elements and, more particularly, to a hand tool for inserting sockets into apertures in a circuit board. Additionally, the disclosure involves an apparatus for severing sockets from a carrier strip and loading them into the hand tool.
Complex, automated equipment for sequentially severing a socket from a carrier strip and inserting it into an apertured circuit board has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,091 to Gavin. Such equipment is used at several locations where mass production of circuit boards with socketed apertures is required but is too expensive for other locations where circuit boards with the same sockets are fabricated only occasionally. A known hand tool for breadboarding and prototyping consists of a punch into one end of which a socket is fitted with tweezers.